My local supermarket (Sainsbury's) is a great source of cheap (free!) moulds. Many of the goods are stacked on the shelves in clear plastic trays for holding the yoghurts, creams, etc. and these are ideal for making chocolate lollipops and other similar items. Their sandwich mixes come in trays with square forms and there are a lot of others which I've not even tried yet. The quality and finish of the plastic of some of these moulds is very good and I've used some of mine ten or twenty times without any noticeable deterioration although after every use I always wash them with a sponge in warm water. The amount of plastic packaging used quite unnecessarily by food manufacturer and retailers is, to my mind, utterly disgraceful and I get a lot of pleasure in putting it to better use. It's probably better to just get agreement from a shelf stacker or at checkout but they will not object. Does anyone else here use this or a similar free source?

June 14, 20082:16 am

Foodpump

Vancouver, Canada

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Not free, but cheap anyways. I like to use the 24" x 48" clear/opaque plastic panels used in those cheap flourescent lighting fixtures.

Perfect for lining sheetpans when doing hand dipped, no need for paper, they (panels) scrape clean easily. And the clear panels usually have a dimpled texture that does pretty good too.

June 14, 200810:53 am

miss coco

coleraine, United Kingdom

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very interesting!! i must have a scavenge next time i'm doing the shopping ;)

June 23, 20085:16 pm

stow10

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Great idea but you can save time by not washing your moulds (I only use novelty shapes). The reason being that every time you use the mould, a layer of cocoa butter is left behind which then makes it easier to release shapes next time. So providing that you always scrape surplus chocolate off and put your moulds away "clean" there will be no need to polish them next time (unless you change colours)

October 8, 200811:54 am

Marcellus

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Further to my previous post, I dropped in at my local mould supplier (Sainsbury's) and found a very useful mould for chocolate bars. In the Seasonal Products section they are selling large, rather ugly squirrel-shaped nutcrackers in a very rigid plastic tray with eight mould forms. OK, it's not segmented but for size and convenience it's perfect for me who just dabbles in my home kitchen. I was lucky as the last nutcracker in a tray had just been taken and I was able to nab it before it was removed and thrown away. (Sometimes I have to do a bit of surreptitious restacking to get a mould I want!) Needs must when money is tight and Sainsbury's don't mind!